Wherever you are ...

I wonder how many of us, under lockdown, are noticing more about our own neighbourhoods.

If you're a regular forager, are you discovering more you can do with the treasures growing closest to you?

If you haven't foraged much, are you feeling a new pull to do so? Are you looking around at the life bursting up right there around you, and wondering how you could get to know it better? 

After the recent rains there's more dandelion and chickweed sprouting and flourishing in gardens - and around parks and reserves.

You can make pakoras with dandelion, or with its very close relative pūhā. Or use dandelion in place of spinach in other recipes.

Nasturtiums are looking healthier.

There are wild mustards coming up everywhere. Everywhere!

Fennel never rests. And lately I've been using it for chai.

And just about everyone has a pine or two near them.

Experimenting with different parts of a plant that you wouldn't normally use is good ... If you have a lemon or other citrus tree, what can you do with the leaves?

Something fun to do is use them as moulds for thin chocolates. Here's the recipe from page 131 of A Forager's Treasury:

Likewise, blackberry. The leaves are really cookable and infusable.

And if you're just a walk away from the beach, keep in mind that almost every seaweed in Aotearoa is edible. (As long as your beach isn't too polluted to gather from, like ours is.)

What's waiting for you under your feet, and above your head?

Wild fennel chai

Lockdown's got me craving chai tea, and I've started experimenting with recipes.

Fennel in all its aniseediness makes a fantastic base. Add to that whatever other sweet spices you have in your lockdown pantry. Cloves, cinnamon, ginger and cardamon are all fantastic chai candidates. And vanilla - real or fake. 

Use whatever you have, and try out different quantities.

The hasty way

Steep black tea as you normally would, with a few fresh young fronds or flowers of fennel in there as well.

If you have them, add in a few cloves, a cinnamon quill, and/or some slices of ginger. A couple of drops of vanilla at the last minute round the flavours off. Add sugar or honey to taste.

Leave in whichever of the spices you can while you drink it. As with herbal tea bags, it'll get stronger as you get towards the end. Fennel in particular is really at its best after a good 10-20 minute steep.

The more considered way 

Into a saucepan put fennel (again, fronds or flowers), whatever other sweet spices you choose, plus a teaspoonful or two of sugar or honey.  (A really good handful of material, with about two cups of water covering will work.)  

Let the brew simmer - with a lid on - for around 20 minutes. Turn it off. 

Add in your black tea and let it steep for another five minutes. 

Lastly, add a capful or so of vanilla if you have it.

You can strain the syrup into a jar or bottle, keep it in the fridge, and get it out to make chai whenever you want. Put two or three centimetres in the bottom of a cup, and add water or your favourite milk.

You likely won't get it exactly as you like it first time, and that's okay. Chai is a journey!

Dandelion coffee time!

There's still plenty to forage for in winter. And it's the perfect time to dig up dandelion roots. Collect them from somewhere that the plants grow big and lush - as they'll have the biggest roots. (The smaller the roots, the more labour intensive the project.)

Am reeling up something I posted about dandelion coffee back in 2009:

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Most people say the colder months are best for digging up and using the roots - it's when they're biggest and sweetest. (An exception is legendary US forager Euell Gibbons, who wrote that he preferred to dig them in spring.)

After some disgusting-tasting attempts many years ago, I've finally managed to make delicious dandelion-root coffee. The secret is to oven-roast the roots on a low temperature for a long time - try about 4 hours at 100 degrees C. 

They shrink a lot, so start with a decent-sized bowlful. Give the roots a good wash and scrub first, and if they're big ones, chop them up smaller. They're ready to take out of the oven when the insides are a darker brown than the outsides, and they snap easily between your fingers.

They give off a slightly chocolatey smell as they roast, which has really grown on me. 
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I'm off on a foraging walk today with a large group of folks, so hopefully we can dig up a few!

Hothouse pūhā

I’ve noticed that pūhā loves to grow in our ramshackle little hothouse.

Last year, a single huge, lush pūhā plant grew in there. It reached about a metre and a half tall – as big as any I’d seen – then kept on growing until its stalk collapsed under its own weight.

This year dozens of little pūhā plants have popped up. They seem healthy and vigorous.

The last owners built the hothouse for grapes and tomatoes. But it looks like pūhā makes a great hothouse plant too, so I’m just going to go with it. I like the idea that a wild weed garden can extend into a hothouse.

Spring windfalls

The wind's roaring so loud, if I shut my eyes I feel like I'm at sea. I hope everyone reading this comes through these gales unscathed.

Occasionally the wind blows something useful down. Like this eucalyptus tree branch - I've been wishing for ages I could reach some of the leaves from this particular neighbourhood tree to try dyeing with.

Maybe it will blow these mandarins down from their unreachable heights too.

This - below - came in the mail today, and also felt a bit like a windfall. (As you can see I ripped open the package quite enthusiastically.)

Seeds from LovePlantLife! Thank you Anna!

I bought lots of beans, plus salad burnet and New Zealand spinach - which I haven't found wild nearby.

Anna also sells seeds for the coolest popcorn ever! Now that I have selfishly secured my supply before it sells out, I can tell people about it!

Stay safe, everyone.

Student innovation: a foraging app

Several months ago I met Hannah Faesenkloet, Oliver Evill, Joe Milsom, and Marcelo Hudson from Victoria University, an enthusiastic team dedicatedly working on a foraging app for an urban conservation project.

Their project has come to fruition. Such a brilliant idea, and see their excellent promotion here: https://vimeo.com/69292736

Now they're getting some great press, too. See the second half of this article.

In winter it’s the little things

This time of year I rarely go on proper foraging trips, but often nip off a few leaves here and there - for this or that.

Nettles are thriving in our untended garden at the moment. I snip 5 or 6 tops into my cup and take it inside to make nettle tea. Does anyone else like to eat the warm, wilted nettle from the bottom of the cup, once you’ve drunk the tea?

I took home a bagful of eucalyptus leaves the other week for a sick, snotty child. I poured boiling water over a pot of torn-up leaves and sat it by her bed to steam. I've used dried eucalyptus leaves for this too, but the fresh ones are a bit more potent.

Bought lettuce is annoying. It’s not its fault, but it takes up lots of fridge space, and I almost never use an entire head before bits have gone brown. I’ve decided to give up buying it, and use only wild greens instead. Burgers for dinner tonight, with lots of chopped up chickweed strands instead of lettuce …